Galloway Forest Park is located in the south-west of Scotland, and has some of the darkest skies in the whole of Europe, and the value of these skies has been recognised Galloway Forest Park, who have undertaken to protect and preserve these skies for all their visitors.

To give you some idea how dark Galloway Forest Park's skies are, they are rated between 2 and 3 on the Bortle Scale. How dark are your skies?

The International Year of Astronomy 2009 now has a Flickr group. Visit http://www.flickr.com/groups/astronomy2009uk/pool/ to see images from the thousands of starparties, astronomy festivals and events that have been happening this year in the UK. Have you got images you want to upload from events you have run or attended? Then join our group!